Can I Get A Second Opinion? (Bad vid card/freezing)

[Startropic1]

I had some technical issues with my PC yesterday, experiencing video issues and some freezing. Upon checking the internal hardware, I descovered the fan on my vid card wasn't spinning. The video card is an XFX GeForce 8600 GT. Today I also noticed that several of the diodes, (I think they're diodes. silver cylindar shaped things soldered to the board labeled FZ83 1500 6.3V & such), are kind of cracked open on top. They're not exactly exploded, just cracked open a little on lines that made a K mark on the tops.

Anyway, given that the fan wasn't spinning & etc. I operated under the assumption that the card is likely fried. I happen to have an XFX GeForce 7200 card not being used, so I put that in for the time being. Although I continued to have serious issues with video & freezing last night, even with the 7200 card. After leaving the computer off over night and revisiting the situation today the freezing seemed to subside and the 7200 card is doing its job. The only lingering problem is that I've had the computer freeze a couple times today. I'm running with a 1440x900 resolution (the proper resolution for my 20 inch lcd screen)

Could the bad video card have caused damage to the motherboard and/or anything else? Could it just be freezing due to forcing the 7200 to run at 1440x900?

Other specs:
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
RAM: 2GB
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-73VM-S2 LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050/nForce 610i Micro ATX Intel Motherboard URL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz E7200 Wolfdale
Sound: Audigy 2
harddrives: ~300GB standard IDE, ~500GB serial (both with FAT32 partitions, although 1 20GB NTFS partition that has no system data whatsoever on it.
Burner: LG DVD burner serial

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping it's just a video card issue, since I was planning to buy a new one anyway.

[Abbadon]

Did you clean your mashing of old video drivers?, if you have not done so, do it now, download fresh drivers for the card than it is being used and instal them.

If the freezing continues, there is a possiblity the slut is damaged.

[Startropic1]

Did you clean your mashing of old video drivers?, if you have not done so, do it now, download fresh drivers for the card than it is being used and instal them.

If the freezing continues, there is a possiblity the slut is damaged.

I thought the 8600 and 7200 used the same driver package? Obviously not the exact same drivers, but you get a single download from XFX/nVidia for drivers for multiple video cards.

[jman98]

It could be a lot of things. Motherboard going bad. Memory going bad. Poor cooling on the CPU. The previous video card damaging the motherboard when it failed (unlikely but I would not say impossible). I am pretty sure that your resolution is not the problem though.

[chowmein]

It could be a lot of things. Motherboard going bad. Memory going bad. Poor cooling on the CPU. The previous video card damaging the motherboard when it failed (unlikely but I would not say impossible). I am pretty sure that your resolution is not the problem though.

Exactly. Computers are c%nts of things - when they malfunction. Over-heating, drivers, you just don't know where to start. You can spend days/weeks trying to diagnose the fault, or just pull the plug & reinstall your OS from scratch.

[Startropic1]

Well since I started this thread there apparently hasn't been anymore freezing. So my working theory is that the fried video card had some other components overheated but not toast last night. If this is the case, I guess I yanked the bad card/shutdown in the nick of time before anything else got cooked. We'll see how things go over the next few days. Next weekend (when I get paid) I'll be ordering a new video card.

[turk690]

Today I also noticed that several of the diodes, (I think they're diodes. silver cylindar shaped things soldered to the board labeled FZ83 1500 6.3V & such), are kind of cracked open on top. They're not exactly exploded, just cracked open a little on lines that made a K mark on the tops.

Those are not diodes; those are electrolytic capacitors. When their tops crack and ooze seeps out it means the interior of your PC is hotter than the middle of the empty quarter in Saudi Arabia in summer. But why stop with the VGA card? I'll bet the capacitors on your motherboard have gone bust as well, so you have to inspect your beloved GA-73VM and consider repair/replacement. PC activity freezes can come from a hot-as-coals processor because it either had a defective fan (spins slowly or intermittently gets stuck), delicious dust bunnies nestled in between heatsink fins, dried-up heatsink compound, or all three ...

[Startropic1]

Today I also noticed that several of the diodes, (I think they're diodes. silver cylindar shaped things soldered to the board labeled FZ83 1500 6.3V & such), are kind of cracked open on top. They're not exactly exploded, just cracked open a little on lines that made a K mark on the tops.

Those are not diodes; those are electrolytic capacitors. When their tops crack and ooze seeps out it means the interior of your PC is hotter than the middle of the empty quarter in Saudi Arabia in summer. But why stop with the VGA card? I'll bet the capacitors on your motherboard have gone bust as well, so you have to inspect your beloved GA-73VM and consider repair/replacement. PC activity freezes can come from a hot-as-coals processor because it either had a defective fan (spins slowly or intermittently gets stuck), delicious dust bunnies nestled in between heatsink fins, dried-up heatsink compound, or all three ...

Well when I originally inspected the inside of my PC, the processor fan was running just fine. Also my case features a ginormous fan on one of the side panels. You'd think with all that, temperatures would be under control. Didn't take note of the mobo's capacitors though. I'll have to check that later. Still no freezing at this point, so a good sign I guess.

Edit: None of the capacitors on the motherboard are cracked, but the computer froze again this morning and now I can't get any video from the video card. The card has barely been used prior to me using it in this instance so I rather doubt this one is fried. I can only conclude that the slot on the motherboard is toast. So now I need a new vid card & mobo.